1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a printing device and a printing method.
2. Background Technology
An inkjet printer is known in which printing is conducted by feeding paper in one direction, moving a head having a plurality of nozzles back and forth in another direction perpendicular to the one direction, and ejecting ink from each of the nozzles. In the inkjet printer, when a state in which ink is not ejected from the nozzles lasts, there are cases in which the moisture of ink evaporates from the openings of the nozzles so as to increase the viscosity of ink. When the viscosity of ink is increased, there are cases in which clogging of the nozzles occurs and the ejection operation of ink becomes unstable. In order to avoid these situations, as shown in Patent Document 1, for example, an apparatus has been proposed in which a flushing process of ejecting ink from each of nozzles is conducted to a margin area of cut sheet paper so as to prevent or solve clogging of the nozzles. Also, Patent Document 2 has disclosed a line head printing device in which a plurality of heads are arranged in a line pattern in another direction, and a nozzle line is formed by arranging nozzles such that the nozzles are overlapped so as to join the heads. In this nozzle line, ejection for forming an image is conducted by one nozzle, and flushing is conducted between images by another nozzle.
Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. H7-314708 (Patent Document 1) and Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2012-166450 (Patent Document 2) are examples of the related art.